Stocking and method of making the same



y 9, 1957 o. E. HERZOG STOCKING AND METHOD OF MAKING THE SAME Filed July15, 1954 INVENTOR. 5770 E. HERZUG ATTORNEY United States Patent STOCKINGAND NIETHOD OF MAHNG THE SAME Otto E. Herzog, Naples, N. C., assignor toAmerican Enka Corporation, Enka, N. C., a corporation of DelawareApplication July 15, 1954, Serial No. 443,715 2 Claims. (Cl. 28-74) Thepresent invention relates to the production of varicolored textiles andmore particularly to the manufacture of knitted or woven articles suchas full-fashioned hosiery from yarns made of two or more different typesof synthetic high polymers.

Since the advent of nylon sheer hosiery in the American market, the fadhas always been a stocking of contrasting color or shade, namely, asheer boot or body portion of one shade and a darker toe, heel and soleportion. Probably the reason why this style has persisted is because thepurchasing public wanted the best appearing leg covering possible, andone way to achieve this was to create a contrasting visual eflfectbetween the body and foot portion, which improved the appearance of theleg.

Therefore, in knitting nylon hosiery to produce this effect fromsynthetic high polymer yarn such as nylon 66 or polymerizedhexamethylene adipamide, it is necessary to first treat the yarn to beused in certain portions of the hose in some special manner. Forexample, the yarn which is to constitute the toe, sole and heel may bedyed before knitting or given a special finish to increase. its dyeabsorption. -This is necessary in order to impart a color contrastbetween this yarn and the yarn constituting the body or boot portionswhen the finished hosiery is dyed with a particular dyestuft'.

This special dyeing or finishing operation of a part of the yarn beforeit is knitted is a time consuming and expensive step which increases thecost factor materially. Moreover, the use of pre-dyed nylon yarn is notentirely satisfactory because, after finishing of the hose, puckersoften occur in the seam :area apparently from the stabilization of thenylon yarn during the dyeing operation which leaves it unaffected by thehose setting operation.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to fabricate hosieryand the like from 'at least two different types of synthetic highpolymer yarns and to impart a contrasting color eflfect in the materialsby the use of a single dyeing operation.

It is a further object of this invention to produce knitted articles inwhich different portions thereof consist of different type high polymeryarns that have difierent dye receptivity.

Another object of the invention is the production of nylon hose in whichthe boot portion thereof is dyed a lighter shade than the remainder bythe application of a dyestuli of one color only.

A new type of nylon yarn that has recently made its entry in theAmerican market is known as nylon 6, which is polymerized epsiloncaprolactam. It belongs to the generic class of nylon yarns because itis a super polyamide.

When full-fashioned hosiery was knitted from nylon 6 it appeared to becomparable with nylon 66 in the most important aspects. However, whendyeing with the same class of dyestuffs it appeared to dye darker or hada greater dye absorption. From this it was concluded that it could notbe used interchangeably with nylon 66 in the knitting operation becausestreakiness or a mottled effect would result.

It was then unpredictably discovered that swatches of nylon 6 and nylon66, when dyed with a common dyeing agent and placed side-by-side, seemedto have a pleasing two-tone efiect. When a full-fashioned hose wasknitted from the two yarns wherein the splicing yarn of nylon 6 was usedin the toe, heel, and sole portion and nylon 66 in the boot, or bodyportion, the hose could be dyed in one operation. As shown in thefigure, the boot or body portion 1 was knitted from nylon 66 and thedarker dyed toe, heel and sole portion 2 was knitted from nylon 6. Itcan be seen from the drawing that the effect was two pleasingcontrasting shades which was equal to, or even better, than the twocorresponding shades of nylon 66 hose, portions of which had beenespecially pro-treated in yarn form. Regardless of the color ofdyestufis used, the resulting shades always appeared to have a propercontrast, in that, the nylon 6 yarn always dyed sutficiently darker thanthe nylon 66 yarn.

What is claimed is:

1. A stocking, the boot portion of which is knitted from nylon 66 andthe toe, sole and heel of which are knitted from nylon 6 and furthercharacterized by a two-tone efiect resulting from the application of asingle dystutf in which the toe, sole and heel are dyed a darker shadethan the boot portion.

2. A process for manufacturing a stocking having a two-tone effect fromnylon 66 and nylon 6 yarn which comprises knitting the toe, heel, andsole portion with splicing yarn of nylon 6 and the remaining bodyportion from nylon 66 yarn and dyeing the stocking thus formed in oneoperation whereby the toe, heel and sole portion is dyed a darker shadethan the body portion.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS689,559 Meyer Dec. 24, 1901 1,817,053 Zerk Aug. 4, 1931 2,584,944 TillesFeb. 5, 1952 2,623,806 Fuchs Dec. 30, 1952 OTHER REFERENCES TextileManufacturer, March 1952, page 148. American Dyestutt Reporter, May 12,1952, page 311.

